Got a taxi to go pick up my train ticket, driver said he knew where I was going and we set off. The traffic in Bangkok is mental, there's cars, vans, trucks, motorbikes like your usual traffic but then tuk tuks and skooters whizzing in and out of all the traffic. There's rarely any traffic lights at junctions so they use their horns. It's noisy and congested but the taxi had air con so relatively comfortable.
We get to a street that looks like the back streets of Bangkok and he stops to let me out, I can't see the IBO office so I say no you need to take me to the office, now is when he suddenly doesn't know much English and tells me he doesn't know where it is, I show him the address again and he just shrugs his shoulders. Beginning to panick about being ditched in the middle of bangkok I tell him to take me to the station but he doesn't appear to understand this either, a game of charades begins but I don't think he's ever played and he doesn't appear to be enjoying it!
Luckily as he begins to drive I see the IBO office and get out, I don't know why he didn't just stop at the door, maybe he just wanted to freak me out a little.
Train ticket collected I get a tuk tuk to the station, security ask for my ticket but I appear to have forgotten where I put it so the mad search of all my bags begins. During my search I become acutely aware of the crowd of men gathering around me, feeling slightly vulnerable I decide to take myself and my bag search to the busy street outside. Found it, phew!
My train leaves in an hour so I go to get some snacks and water for the journey and head towards the toilet as goodness knows what the toilet on the train will be like.
There appears to have been a flood in the toilet cause the floor is soaking, the cleaner is using a wet mop to clean so is basically just moving the water around, I open the toilet door and it's a hole in the floor. Now my dilemma isn't the wet floor or the fact that it's a hole in the floor, it's the backpack on my back, the rucksack on my front and my inability to A - get my trouser and pants down and B - squat to pee without falling over! I don't want to take my bags off as the thought of whatever is on the floor soaking into my bags doesn't please me but I don't think I went to enough yoga to get the balance right.
Mission accomplished, I took my wet possibly urine soaked bags and headed for the train. By this point I was completely fed up, I did not like Bangkok and was seriously considering crying.
Surprisingly the over night train is ok, the bunk beds are a decent size, you get a pillow, a sheet and a blanket - which have all be freshly washed. You can keep your bag in the cubicle with you so no need to worry about thieves and the air con worked. I sorted my stuff, put my iPod on and had no intention of moving till we arrived at our destination.
A cubicle move, sleep and a couple of toilet stops (not that bad actually) later I was woken at 6am and told we had to get off as there had been a crash on the track so we were getting a coach the rest of the journey!
The decor of the coach looked like someones Indian granny had exploded in there but was comfortable and had some great views of the jungle.
The coach struggled uphill the whole way, there was a serious issue with the clutch by the sound of it and there was a couple of near misses! I was bursting for the toilet so went downstairs to check it out!
I thought the station was bad, the toilet situation just seemed to be getting worse - a tiny basin thing, which I can only assume was the toilet, beside a massive bucket of questionable water with a smaller bucket in it. The door only locked from outside and the bus was moving so the large bucket of water was spilling everywhere. Now trying to pee in a moving bus is pretty difficult when you have a proper toilet but this was just taking the piss!
I decided to run the risk of peeing myself instead! I never thought something as simple as going to the toilet could be so traumatic and physically challenging.
I was relieved to arrive in Chang Mai and The guesthouse seemed ok, not as bad as all the reviews made it out to be although pretty basic and the air con leaked into the bathroom so there was a smell of dampness, but only sleeping and showering in there though so I didn't care, was just glad there was a toilet seat and a bed.